Anthropologists have recently recalibrated the radiocarbon dating of Neandertals and AMHs in Europe. What did they find?
A) Modern humans and Neandertals first coexisted in Europe for 2,000 years, but then the modern humans moved southeast into the Middle East while Neandertals remained in western Europe.
B) Modern humans may have been in Europe longer than previously thought-perhaps for 50,000 years-and their time of overlap with the Neandertals was less than previously thought, perhaps no more than 2,000 years in western Europe.
C) Radiocarbon dating is useless for Neandertal remains, since all these remains are actually much older than 50,000 years.
D) The advent of behavioral modernity-as gleaned from cave art, symbolic artifacts, and personal ornamentation-occurred much later than previously thought.
E) During a spike of human dispersal through Africa that occurred 30,000 years ago, cosmic radiation altered the proportions of carbon 14 to carbon 12, thus introducing a source of error in the carbon dating of fossils from that period.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Anthropologists found that modern humans may have been in Europe longer than previously thought, and their time of overlap with Neanderthals may have been less than previously thought, perhaps no more than 2,000 years in western Europe. This was determined through recalibrated radiocarbon dating.

Anthropologists Have Recently Recalibrated the Radiocarbon Dating of Neandertals and AMHs